July 19, 2007

Mayor Luke's Security

This caught my eye this morning. It's from today's Rich Lord of the P-G.

In the first six months of this year, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's bodyguards made more money than their boss did. That's one result of the ramped-up security around the city's top executive, who is accompanied by an officer at public, political and personal affairs.

So he's got round-the-clock police protection when he's out in public.

"There are times when if I do something personal at somebody's home, I'll go with my wife and myself," he said. But if he's out politicking, or grabbing dinner and drinks, he's accompanied.

Wait. Does this mean he had an officer with him when he flew to NYC and couldn't remember where he ate or slept?

12 comments:

You missed my favorite quote of the day: "I've been instructed by the police department . . ." I thought Luke was the MAYOR and that the mayor was the one running the city (in my dreams). Wake me when it's over.

Well, now we understand why he felt comfortable telling those concerned about sidewalk harassment at family planning clinics that he gets harassed every time he walks down the street and it doesn't bother him.

Our mayor must understand the bigger picture here: he alone is responsible for his behavior. Truly, on this issue with the golf outing, I don't see where his confusion comes from. If he is directly invited to a benefit, he may attend and remain within the current definition of ethical behavior.

In other words, if the CLO has a benefit and gives him a ticket (and of course promotes that he is planning to attend in order to up their attendance), he could accept that ticket regardless of the amount others were contributing to the organization to attend.

If an asphalt company offers to buy him a ticket to the CLO's benefit, he could not accept that gift and still maintain the ethical model.

The bottom line is that a leader leads by example. If the whole city starts acting like the mayor, no one with any sense of community well-being will want to live here.

Nate Harper says he sends two officers to Harrisburg with the Mayor. But the NY trip was unplanned. The Mayor might have just dismissed the officer, or maybe that's where the overtime comes in. Really, how did two cops who are working 16 hours between them, plus whatever wekends, get enough overtime to double their pay? The guy who starts at four works a shift to midnight. Does this Mayor have any official business to carry on after midnight? The Mayor stays out every night till two, then gets up early enough to be ready to go at six? Do they let the Mayor nap in exchange for his padding their hours?

The President is "instructed" by the treasury dept to take secret service protection. Come on guys, every mayor has had security during their time in office. Seems like "we" are grasping at straws now!

Well, if you are going to draw some kind of a connection between presidential Secret Service protection and that provided to the mayor of Pittsburgh, then I guess it's only fair to ask just where Mark DeSantis' security detail is. At the federal level, Secret Service protection is provided to candidates prior to the election. Why shouldn't DeSantis have the same protection?

This is insane. When was the last time someone took a shot at a Mayor...anywhere? It is a total and complete waste of our money.

Further, if the Mayor can simply "dismiss" the security detail when he feels like it, the whole thing is a sham.

And there is a HUGE difference between The President and a small city mayor. Lose the Prez and the security of the nation and it's place in the international community can be compromised. Lose a mayor and....what...we end up with another Opie?

Also, in a city that is teetering financially, who the hell would pay that much OT? If the Mayor can't do better cost-control with his own personal cops, how the hell do we trust him to manage the massive City budget?

Maybe it is me, but if Mayor Murphy made do with one officer (during daylight hours) why can't Luke? I mean Luke is this towns golden calf whereas Murphy was not only hated in general, but he laid off a large amount of people who actually own guns and know how to use them.

I think the mayor should have some type of security, but I don't think it really needs to be 200k a years worth.

Jason I'm with you. The mayor should have security, but like a lot of things it should be reviewed and analyzed to make sure it's at an appropriate levelin some way other than "I don't want anything to happen to the mayor on my watch." Surely they've heard of cost/benefit analysis or understand risk assessment - think about what a difference one full time cop in Homewood could make in lives there. Making $100,000 to be a big guy following the mayor around is a cake job. Sign me up.

I don't really care that much about this. Though I do think that the Mayor has a better chance of getting killed in a car crash than he does of being attacked by a deranged person. I'm also not convinced that one officer is really that big of a deterrent to deranged people. Finally, I fear that "security" will be used to keep people with opposing views away from public officials--as Romney and Giluani have already done.

Though I do think that the Mayor has a better chance of getting killed in a car crash than he does of being attacked by a deranged person.

Have you actually *met* any of the citizenry of the City of Pittsburgh, T-bag? I would say that anyone that paints themselves on Sunday and swings a cleaning apparatus around their head could be considered "deranged".